1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to drinking fluid containers, and more particularly to a combination fluid container and water treatment system integrated within a portable stainless steel water vessel. A treatment compound is positioned within the vessel in an interior perforated chamber located in and fixed to the container to interact with a drinking fluid. For example, the container and treatment compound may be used to form alkaline water.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal hydration includes the need for portable drinking fluid containers and bottles. Because of the sustainability and environmental issues associated with plastic and single use water bottles, consumers are attracted to reusable containers as such as stainless steel water bottles. Also stainless steel bottles can be formed to be free of BPA, lead or other toxins making for a healthier container. In addition, consumers have recognized the health benefits of treated drinking fluids such as alkaline water. In this regard, there is a need in the art for combining the benefits of reusable containers in combination with the easy availability of treated fluids such as alkaline water.
Alkaline water is understood to be beneficial to health for maintaining physical stability and helping to deal with acid buildup in the body in both healthy individuals and those with conditions that cause acidification of the blood. Alkaline water is said to aid in digestion, neutralize acidity, and to also assist in reducing free radicals. In addition, in most instances alkaline water has the characteristic of smaller water clusters, and a pH above 7.0 that has also been identified as allowing the body to more easily absorb the water. Generally, alkaline water is obtained by water electrolysis and/or through chemical treatment by mineral agents. In many prior art devices for creating alkaline water, electricity is used in association with an apparatus, or otherwise have complex structures that are not conducive for treating drinkable fluids in a portable manner. A discussion of the types and systems for creating alkaline water are described in Chung, U.S. Publication No. 2007/0221556, published Sep. 27, 2007, the substance of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Prior art devices also disclose the use of mineral agents in fluid vessels, to allow untreated water to come in contact with the agents to form alkaline water. Such prior art devices however include multi-part structures that are not user friendly and may not remain fixed in a vessel, as intended, or otherwise use an undesirable amount of volume within a vessel and do not facilitate the flow of water around the mineral agents. As such there is a need in the art for the worry free use of a reactive agent in a portable fluid vessel, that will not overtake the functional use of the vessel and use an undesirable amount of volume of the bottle.